The Pirate Bay might move servers to the sky to avoid the authorities

The Pirate Bay is considering using a fleet of drones fitted with server stations that will hover several kilometers above ground to avoid the authorities (Photo: Shutterstock)

The Pirate Bay has announced that it may soon take to the skies in its ongoing efforts to avoid the authorities. Various governments and legal teams across the globe have had the file-sharing website in their cross-hairs for several years now, which has prompted the site in the past to relocate its main operations to a secret location and to switch to only hosting magnet links for torrents. Now the site is seriously considering sending out a fleet of drones fitted with server stations that will hover several kilometers above ground and broadcast through radio transmitters at all times, making it even more difficult to shut down.

The whole concept sounds like a bizarre prank, but The Pirate Bay has noted some specific technology when discussing the idea that indicates it isn't joking around. The proposed Low Orbit Server Stations (LOSS's) would act as front machines, redirecting the site's traffic to a secret location. The company wants to keep them small in size (harder to physically locate that way) and is planning on building them around tiny computers, like the credit card-sized Raspberry Pi. Adding GPS controls and cheap radio equipment would allow each node to be moved remotely and broadcast at 100 Mbps at distances of up to 50 km (31 miles) away.

With these LOSS's remaining several kilometers in the air constantly, physically disabling the website's front operations would be nearly impossible without an airplane, even if an organization obtained legal permission. What's more, the drones would contain no storage device that could hold information on the location of the main server, meaning the website's central operations could theoretically never be linked to a specific country.

It's a drastic plan certainly, but probably not that surprising coming from a company that has endured as much legal trouble as The Pirate Bay. In just 2012 alone, the website has seen three of its founders given prison sentences and has switched to a ".se" domain name to stay out of certain countries' jurisdictions. In keeping with the spirit of the site however, The Pirate Bay has stated that if this plan for orbiting servers does come to fruition, the specs for the drones will be freely available for download.

The Pirate Bay is considering using a fleet of drones fitted with server stations that will hover several kilometers above ground to avoid the authorities (Photo: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-32626837/stock-photo-pirates-flag.html" target="_blank">Shutterstock</a>)